Canadian Lawyer 4Students: With most summer students starting at the big law firms last week, Canadian Lawyer 4Students spoke with recruiters and career services professionals to compile a list of the top 10 ways to make the most out of your summer.

Canadian Lawyer 4Students: You might want to think twice before posting that photo of you skiing on Whistler Mountain — you never know where it could end up. Canadian courts are increasingly ordering the disclosure of Facebook content to be used as evidence in trials. The most recent example is that of University of Victoria Faculty of Law graduate Tamara Fric, who was ordered by Supreme Court of British Columbia Master Carolyn Bouck on April 27 to hand over photos from her Facebook account in a personal injury case.

Canadian Lawyer 4Students: It’s that dreaded time of year again — when your diet consists mainly of coffee and granola bars, you’re running on an average of three hours of sleep, your eyes sting from staring at textbooks, and you’re living in your sweats — yep, it’s exam time!

Canadian Lawyer 4Students: In the wake of his failed attempt to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes NHL team, Balsillie has been rejected again — this time by Canadian universities. Last week, York University turned down a $30-million offer from Balsillie’s Centre for International Governance Innovation to establish a school in international relations and 10 research chairs in international law — which would have been matched by the Ontario government with an additional $30 million.

Canadian Lawyer 4Students: The University of Toronto Faculty of Law is considering changing its grading system. Rather than receive an A, B, or C letter grade, students would be given a high honours, honours, pass, low pass, or fail rating.

Canadian Lawyer 4Students: Law students know that it is hard to get a C (or worse) on written work. Most law schools have something approximating a B curve and most grades are in this range. Most law professors don’t like giving law students low grades. However, some students work very hard to obtain low marks on writing assignments. I want to share their secrets with you so that you too can obtain a C (or maybe even a D!) on your next paper. If you want to avoid such a fate, the information below will also be particularly useful.

Canadian Lawyer 4Students: The excitement of mooting season has come to an end. And now, instead of practising oral arguments, it’s time to hit the books and get ready for exams. 4Students has gathered the results of this year’s regional, national, and international competitions. Special mention goes to Western University, which fared very well in this year’s events.

Keisha-Ann Shaw Hill recently became the first graduate of the Internationally Trained Lawyers Program to qualify to practise in Ontario.

With the shortage of articling positions and a growing concern that law school is not equipping law students to practise law, debate is growing over whether law schools need to step in to fill the gap.

A degree is one thing, but building your own personal business plan by gaining knowledge of the industries related to your interests – and the people who work in them – can provide a major career boost.

Personality or skills? Which counts more for articling students and young lawyers looking to build successful careers?

Perhaps the most challenging part of the transition from law school to work is that of developing a personal image or brand.

Students should make a big investment in speaking with a range of firms and lawyers before choosing an articling firm.

Choosing to article at a boutique can make life a lot simpler for prospective articling students facing the daunting prospect of scrutinizing the legal market to find a firm that’s the best fit. But that’s not to say that executing the decision to article at a boutique is a simple one.

Canadian Lawyer 4Students: Thousands of Quebec students gathered in the streets of Montreal on March 22 to protest a proposed tuition hike by the provincial government.

Canadian Lawyer 4Students: In September 2009, two University of Windsor law students were chatting outside their first-year access-to-justice class about all things legal. One of them mentioned the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and suggested it would be funny for public figures to recite it.

Canadian Lawyer 4Students: Often apocalyptically referred to as “the articling crisis,” one of the hot-button issues in the legal world today is the increasing disparity between the number of articling positions offered versus the number of new law graduates seeking articling positions.

Canadian Lawyer 4Students: The University of Houston recently held a branding ceremony at the city’s annual Livestock Show and Rodeo — only this one didn’t involve cows. This one involved the University of Houston Law Center and the University of Calgary Faculty of Law branding their signatures on an agreement establishing a joint international energy lawyers program.

Canadian Lawyer 4Students: The thorny issue of intervening in the conflict in Syria was high on the agenda at Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights and the International Law Students Association’s eighth annual Global Generations Conference at the University of Ottawa recently.